Back to Pokhara...off to Ghalel.

Getting back to Pokhara after three weeks of trekking at high altitudes and without regular showers was such a treat. In some ways it almost felt like going back home. I already had my landmarks and small habits in the town.

So as soon as I dropped my bags off at Anne's guest house, I went on a food hunt. I was sooooo looking forward to affordable and varied western foods a again. Roasted chicken, fresh fruit juices, loaves of brow bred...

And as I was walking around I bumped into Jerome from the vipassana course. Really good to see him. So we met up for diner to catch up a bit on the town's gossips. And as we were almost done, I see Colin coming from the back room. Amazing! Colin and Nathalie had just returned from their trek like an hour before. So we had dessert all together. It was so fantastic to be all reunited again!

The reason why I cut my trekking short, other than being tired of it, was because I had committed to going to Ghalel, small village where Angelina went last year, to also volunteer my help any way they need.

It so happened that this weekend Ghalel was competing in a District volleyball tournament in Pokhara...and yesterday, April 7th, they actually qualified for the finals for the first time ever. Very big deal for them.

Ram, who helped Angelina last year in the discovery of Ghalel picked me up to go watch the game and then we would take off and go straight to Ghalel. Little did we know that the game would be stopped half way through by an apocalyptic hale storm. Incredible. The whole thing arrived over the volleyball court like a black space ship out of nowhere. The air got suddenly very hot, and then, in a spilt second, ice marbles were raining from the sky. The temperature dropped so low so fast!

As soon as the storm started, everyone got up and ran for refuge. It was comical to watch actually, as the first things that would fly up with the wind were all the detritus and plastic that everyone had been throwing on the floor since the beginning of the tournament. It initially really upset me a lot to see everyone littering the place like crazy, but seeing the storm taking its revenge was fun. I was told to run and follow "the monk". Which I did. Soon we were 8 people cramped up in the tiny car of the monk, waiting for the rain and hale to stop. It was kind of scary to see how the storm just kept on intensifying.

After a good hour or so, it all stopped the same way it had started. The space ship just disappeared and left place to a magnificent sunset...only hick up was that the volleyball court was now a giant pond. Thus the game got postponed to the next day, this morning. 

And gosh, what a game it was! These kids (some of them are actually rather adults or about my age) play like pros! It really was a beautiful final game. And Ghalel even won!!! They were so happy they also decorated me with the budhist scarf and put some red powder on my forehead. Almost each player then wanted to take a photo with me and the trophy. Was nice and funny.

Such a fantastic day. Bright sun. Blue sky. A large crowd had made its way down the 2 hour drive from the village to watch the final game. So they all took part to the celebration. 4 motorcycles and a whole bus. The whole way back up from Pokhara to Ghalel was nothing but constant honking and victory screams. Such a joyful and happy bunch all thrilled to heaven to have won this tournament.

And well, lucky me, I was sitting on the motorcycle of Ram the whole way. Wow! What a ride! The whole time I was thinking that doing the Annapurna circuit had been such a mistake. The Mardi Himal trek (where Ghalel is situated), of which i got to see a part, is just a full blown spectacle of beauty and awesome scenery. No foreigners. Only locals who are actually smiling, and traditional little villages here and there. Magnificent all the way. And riding literally in the river for quite a while, with water almost knee high, was really fun and cool. Can't believe that 5 minutes before we started riding in the river I was actually thinking to myself that for safety reasons I should have worn sneakers rather than fliflops. I was so happy to not have done so as soon as we got into the water with the bike.

And so we were four motorcycles "escorting" the fully loaded bus, both inside and on the roof, of fans who were singing, dancing, and drinking all along. The three motos and us always made sure to make the detour at every little village or group of houses to scream our victory chants and let the people know that Ghalel was the champion.

I have to admit though that I was way overwhelmed by the beauty and fun of the ride and thus didn't really pay much attention to the celebration itself.

And we kept on going, river stream after river stream, ravished dirt path after dirt path. Once again I had to put my "life" on the hands of fate. Worrying about a potential fall, slip, or crash would not have solved any issue. So I just enjoyed the ride.

We finally arrived at Lumre, a very small yet gorgeous and Western movie like. All the commotion of the celebration definitely attracted all the villagers...and Gosh there were a lot of kids. The moment would have been photo portrait heaven had I been disrespectful and started to hunt everyone for a portrait. I did bite my lips many times from the frustration of missing out on so many amazing potential shots. Oh well...those shots are engraved in my memory any way. That's all that matters now.

After a tea, some snack, and a slightly yet funny interaction with some drunk kid who wanted to be my friend, we headed further up, on the way to Ghalel. Ram really wanted to show me his new venture that will hopefully bring not only income for him but also for the rest of the village: the canyoning site, a 200m tall beautiful waterfall hidden in the middle of the jungle, and ending in a small natural pool. The potential of this site is huge, between canyoning, zip lining, rock climbing, swimming...

That is very much why Ram brought me to Ghalel, to help him boost the village's attractiveness to tourism. So many ideas came to me as we were making our way to the village. Such fantastic location and pool of culture.

Anyhow, we made it to Ghalel right during sunset...just before the light went off (electricity here is rationed and only provided to the village certain hours per night).

The village is so charmingly beautiful. 80 houses spread out in the mountain, all dominating the more or less central volleyball court downhill. Terrace agriculture all around. Bamboos, fruit trees, and animals all over. And the village is positioned in such a way that for the most part it is directly facing and overlooking the entire valley and river. Spectacular view!

In order to spread out the business fairly among the 8 homestays, tourists are always referred or put to a place that hasn't had business in a while. My luck, I got the one with the best view. It so happened that an Israeli couple was also staying in for the night. So after exchanging trekking tips and experiences, we ate some delicious dalbat inside the kitchen. Such great time. We even got to learn about special dish that the locals eat here, basically made out of a millet flour turned into a thick paste. You roll it into a small ball in your hand, dip it in dal, and are supposed to swallow it directly, without giving it a chew. Sorry but my brain refused to process the new info and each and every time made me chew first. Oh well, it still was very tasty.

We all laughed so much during each of my attempts and while I was jaw dropped observing the ease with which the hostess was just popping much bigger millet balls back to back without ever chewing at all.

Maybe I will try again tomorrow...sleepy time now.

Namaste.